# Filmmaker Roman Polanski is Arrested for Rape of 13 Year Old (32 Years Late)



## Darla (Sep 29, 2009)

> (CNN) â€” Filmmaker Roman Polanski has been arrested on an arrest warrant stemming from a decades-old sex charge, Swiss police said Sunday. The Academy Award-winning director pleaded guilty in 1977 to a single count of having unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor, acknowledging he had sex with a 13-year-old girl, but fled the United States before he could be sentenced. U.S. authorities issued a warrant for his arrest in 1978.He was taken into custody trying to enter Switzerland on Saturday, Zurich police said.
> 
> Polanski, 76, has lived in France for decades to avoid being arrested if he enters the U.S. He declined to collect his Academy Award for Best Director in person when he won it for "The Pianist" in 2003.
> 
> ...


What a life indeed.






~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

_My initial inclination upon hearing of this was this guy seriously needs for all this to catch up with him and he needs to do some time. But then i read this other account including a statement from the victim and now i am not sure. Any other thoughts?_

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

from CNN 

* Polanski arrested in connection with sex charge*


Story Highlights
*NEW:* Extradition can be fought in court, Swiss Justice Ministry says
In 1977 Polanski pleaded guilty to having sex with a 13-year-old girl
Oscar winner was en route to Zurich Film Festival, which was honoring him
Polanski won Oscar for best writing for "Rosemary's Baby," which he directed
updated 9:25 a.m. EDT, Sun September 27, 2009


Next Article in Entertainment Â» 
































*(CNN)* -- Filmmaker Roman Polanski has been arrested on an arrest warrant stemming from a decades-old sex charge, Swiss police said Sunday.




Roman Polanski attends a film premiere in Paris, France, in June 2009.






The Academy Award-winning director pleaded guilty in 1977 to a single count of having unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor, acknowledging he had sex with a 13-year-old girl, but fled the United States before he could be sentenced. U.S. authorities issued a warrant for his arrest in 1978.

He was taken into custody trying to enter Switzerland on Saturday, Zurich police said.

Polanski, 76, has lived in France for decades to avoid being arrested if he enters the U.S. He declined to collect his Academy Award for Best Director in person when he won it for "The Pianist" in 2003.

He was en route to the Zurich Film Festival, which is holding a tribute to him, when he was arrested by Swiss authorities, the festival said.

Polanski was nominated for best director Oscars for "Tess" and "Chinatown," and for best writing for "Rosemary's Baby," which he also directed.

"Roman Polanski, who is one of the greatest film directors of all time, would have been honored for his life's work in Zurich today," the film festival said in a statement.

*Don't Miss*


Ex-Manson follower Susan Atkins dies  
Mason's legacy: 'Live freaky, die freaky'

40 years after Manson murders, a bid for parole

"However yesterday, on Saturday, he was taken into custody while attempting to enter Switzerland due to a request by U.S. authorities in connection with an arrest warrant from 1978."

The Swiss Justice Ministry said Polanski was put "in provisional detention." But whether he can be extradited to the United States "can be established only after the extradition process judicially has been finalised," a ministry spokesman said in an e-mail.

"It is possible to appeal at the federal penal court of justice against an arrest warrant in view to extradition as well as against an extradition decision," the spokesman wrote. "Their decisions can be taken further to the federal court of justice."

Polanski was accused of plying a 13-year-old girl with champagne and a sliver of a quaalude tablet and performing various sex acts, including intercourse, with her during a photo shoot at actor Jack Nicholson's house. He was 43 at the time.

Nicholson was not at home, but his girlfriend at the time, actress Anjelica Huston, was.

According to a probation report contained in the filing, Huston described the victim as "sullen."

"She appeared to be one of those kind of little chicks between -- could be any age up to 25. She did not look like a 13-year-old scared little thing," Huston said.

She added that Polanski did not strike her as the type of man who would force himself on a young girl.

"I don't think he's a bad man," she said in the report. "I think he's an unhappy man."

Polanski pleaded guilty to a single count of having unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor.

There have been repeated attempts to settle the case over the years, but the sticking point has always been Polanski's refusal to return to attend hearings.

Prosecutors have consistently argued that it would be a miscarriage of justice to allow a man to go free who "drugged and raped a 13-year-old child."

Polanski's lawyers tried earlier this year to have the charges thrown out, but a Los Angeles judge rejected the request.

In doing so, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Peter Espinoza left the door open to reconsider his ruling if Polanski shows up in court.

Espinoza also appeared to acknowledge problems with the way Polanski's case was handled years ago.

According to court documents, Polanski, his lawyer and the prosecutor thought they'd worked out a deal that would spare Polanski from prison and let the young victim avoid a public trial.

But the original judge in the case, who is now dead, first sent the director to maximum-security prison for 42 days while he underwent psychological testing. Then, on the eve of his sentencing, the judge told attorneys he was inclined to send Polanski back to prison for another 48 days.

Polanski fled the United States for France, where he was born.

In the February hearing, Espinoza mentioned a documentary film that depicts backroom deals between prosecutors and a media-obsessed judge who was worried his public image would suffer if he didn't send Polanski to prison.

"It's hard to contest some of the behavior in the documentary was misconduct," said Espinoza.

But he declined to dismiss the case entirely.

Legal experts said such a ruling would have been extremely rare.

Polanski's victim is among those calling for the case to be tossed out.

Samantha Geimer filed court papers in January saying, "I am no longer a 13-year-old child. I have dealt with the difficulties of being a victim, have surmounted and surpassed them with one exception.

"Every time this case is brought to the attention of the Court, great focus is made of me, my family, my mother and others. That attention is not pleasant to experience and is not worth maintaining over some irrelevant legal nicety, the continuation of the case."

Geimer, now 45, married and a mother of three, sued Polanski and received an undisclosed settlement. She long ago came forward and made her identity public -- mainly, she said, because she was disturbed by how the criminal case had been handled.

Following Espinoza's ruling earlier this year, Geimer's lawyer, Larry Silver, said he was disappointed and that Espinoza "did not get to the merits and consider the clear proof of both judicial and prosecutorial corruption."

He argued in court that had "Mr. Polanski been treated fairly" his client would not still be suffering because of publicity almost 32 years after the crime.

Polanski was arrested two days after one of his wife's killers died.

The director's pregnant wife, actress Sharon Tate, and four others were butchered by members of the Manson "family" in August 1969. Polanski was filming in Europe at the time.

By her own admission, Susan Atkins held the eight-months-pregnant Tate down as she pleaded for mercy, stabbing the 26-year-old actress 16 times.

Atkins, 61, died Thursday. She had been suffering from terminal brain cancer.


----------



## Dragonfly (Sep 29, 2009)

ya do the crime so ya do the time

I have little faith in a man drugging a child and having sex with her.

If this were some unknown, average man, no one would give this guy a break.

And if the victim wants to move on, then she should. He however has to face the music.


----------



## Darla (Sep 29, 2009)

I had a huge problem with him making a plea bargain and then bailing on it. So there *IS* real truth to the charges.


----------



## Darla (Sep 29, 2009)

I don't know which day this was on, but this link has the View discussing the whole case. Whoopi On Roman Polanski: It Wasn't 'Rape-Rape' - Roman polanski whoopi goldberg - Jezebel

I think bottom line was even if Roman Polanski thought she was 16 instead of 13 or whatever he still had sex with a minor when he was 43!

I kind of can't believe the girl's mother in this, especially since Polanski already had a reputation for being a sleaze and was reportly involved with Natasha Kinski (sp) in Europe who was only 15 at the time. But if you knew your 13 year old daughter was doing nude modeling for guy who you knew was questionable then that only means two things; either you don't care about your daughter and her welfare or you potentially have some plot to extort money out of Polanski in some sort of a casting couch extortion scheme as was speculated.

None of this really matters I suppose since he really did this crime and any things that come up later like an unfair judge or whatever are just things he brought upon himself.






~~~~

this is an account that was in Smoking Gun regarding the grand jury testimony:

_Polanski, 69, will not discuss the case and his victim, Samantha Geimer, now 39, has recently said that the sex assault should not color his chances with Academy Award voters. But that, of course, does not lessen the severity of the crime, which is graphically detailed in the following grand jury testimony, which was quietly unsealed four months ago by L.A. Superior Court Judge David Wesley. _

Two weeks after Polanski plied her with Champagne and a Quaalude, Samantha Gailey appeared before an L.A. grand jury and recalled Polanski's predatory behavior in a Mulholland Canyon home owned by Jack Nicholson.

The teenager's troubling--and contemporaneous--account of her abuse at Polanski's hands begins with her posing twice for topless photos that the director said were for French Vogue. The girl then told prosecutors how Polanski directed her to, "Take off your underwear" and enter the Jacuzzi, where he photographed her naked. Soon, the director, who was then 43, joined her in the hot tub. He also wasn't wearing any clothes and, according to Gailey's testimony, wrapped his hands around the child's waist.

The girl testified that she left the Jacuzzi and entered a bedroom in Nicholson's home, where Polanski sat down beside her and kissed the teen, despite her demands that he "keep away." According to Gailey, Polanski then performed a sex act on her and later "started to have intercourse with me." At one point, according to Gailey's testimony, Polanski asked the 13-year-old if she was "on the pill," and "When did you last have your period?" Polanski then asked her, Gailey recalled, "Would you want me to go in through your back?" before he "put his penis in my butt." Asked why she did not more forcefully resist Polanski, the teenager told Deputy D.A. Roger Gunson, "Because I was afraid of him."

Following his indictment on various sex charges, Polanski agreed to a plea deal that spared him prison time (he had spent about 45 days in jail during a court-ordered psychiatric evaluation). But when it seemed that a Superior Court judge might not honor the deal--and sentence Polanski to prison--the director fled the country.


----------



## pinksugar (Sep 29, 2009)

Im not really sure what to think!

she was 13! ew! and even if she looked 16.... it's still young to be having sex with someone 30 years her senior!

and it sounds like it wasn't a once-off drunken mistake, but a deliberate lifestyle choice, if he was shagging teenagers left right and center..


----------



## emily_3383 (Sep 29, 2009)

Oh well he has lived a good life the last 30 years and he should have just done his time before. I would be surprised if he actually goes to jail because it costs more to take care of an old man than a younger one which is why you see people getting released from jail. its all about money.


----------



## SimplyElegant (Sep 29, 2009)

I don't think blaming the victim is right at all. Even if she was 16, it's still disgusting. He's he adult, he needs to make smart choices.


----------

